Project Grant - Round 2
ACHF Arts Access ACHF Arts Education ACHF Cultural Heritage
If this project achieves the intended outcomes, Fine Arts Programming expects audiences and residency participants to have a new interest and curiosity about Middle Eastern music and culture that will lead them to explore other offerings from Fine Arts Programming and other Central Minnesota performing arts organizations, both in traditional and more culturally-based forms. Residency participants will also have a greater sense of what informs Arabic music through the education components of Simon Shaheen’s outreach. Fine Arts Programming anticipates that area youth who participate in residencies will have a better appreciation for Middle Eastern music and culture through hands-on interactions with Shaheen. Fine Arts Programming staff members expect that these activities will also strengthen relationships with our residency partners, which in turn will facilitate future partnerships.Fine Arts Programming will work with each residency partner to outline specific desired outcomes. Following the residency activities, Fine Arts Programming will gather feedback responses from workshop facilitators to find out if the activities met the intended goals and/or expectations for each different demographic. These will be narrative responses, giving partners a chance to provide more meaningful feedback. When we have partnered in the past, many times, facilitators ask their participants to journal about their experiences; these reflections have provided a wealth of information on the impact of arts activities. Fine Arts Programming will ask for this kind of feedback from College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University faculty whose classes take part in workshops with Shaheen, as well as the groups from District 742, Hands Across the World, the Bethlehem Sudanese Community, and the Anna Marie’s Alliance group. The easiest and most often used measure of success will, of course, be attendance numbers at residency activities and at the public performance. Fine Arts Programming will track ticket sales and participation numbers at residency events as well as survey the public performance audience to find out if this performance attracted new audiences to a World Music performance as anticipated and if this style of World Music was successful at changing attitudes and/or perceptions of the genre.
One need identified in the application was that this project could help introduce new audiences to World Music, or whether it would successfully change attitudes and/or perceptions of the genre. Survey results indicate that 74% of the audience attended any kind of Middle Eastern music performance 0-5 times before. More importantly, 64% of the audience indicated that this performance changed their understanding or perspective on Middle Eastern Music. Residency participants walked away with new ways of approaching introducing music, and more specifically, world music to their constituents. The work in music bridging cultures was also an important outcome in the creative process. Patrons at the public performance were asked to complete surveys to find out if this project attracted new audiences to world music performances or if this project changed perceptions of Middle Eastern music. Evaluation forms were distributed to residency facilitators. Participation numbers were tracked for each residency event and the public performance.
Other, local or private